The brutal Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd has sparked violent protests, looting, and arson attacks in Minneapolis and St. Paul. A police precinct building was torched and destroyed and the Minnesota National Guard has been called out to restore order. But the killing in Minnesota is the latest reminder that politicians and judges — through federal law and judicial interpretation — have turned police into a privileged class that is most often unaccountable, if not entitled to oppress other Americans.

Almost everyone agrees that Floyd's death was a horrendous injustice. President Trump, who urged police officers in 2017 to not "be too nice" to suspects they arrested, condemned what the police did to Floyd as "a very bad thing." Former Minneapolis police chief Janeé Harteau said that the video of Floyd's killing was "the most horrific thing I've seen in my career and in my lifetime." Washington, D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham declared that the officers' actions were "nothing short of murder." Derick Chauvin, the police officer who killed Floyd was arrested today and charged with murder; he and three other police involved in Floyd's death were fired earlier this week

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across America again Sunday, with peaceful demonstrations against police killings of black people overshadowed by unrest that ravaged cities from Philadelphia to Los Angeles and flared near the White House.

City and state officials deployed thousands of National Guard soldiers, enacted strict curfews and shut down mass transit systems to slow protesters' movements, but that did little to stop parts of many cities from again erupting into mayhem.

Protesters in Philadelphia hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at police, officials said, while thieves in more than 20 California cities smashed their way into businesses and ran off with as much as they could carry — boxes of sneakers, armloads of clothes, and cellphones, TVs and other electronics.

The family of George Floyd is set to receive the results of a private autopsy by Monday after rejecting the medical examiner's findings.

According to CBS News, the family's lawyer Ben Crump said they disagreed with the conclusion found in the autopsy conducted by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office, which found "no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation."

The report also said Floyd's underlying health conditions included coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease. It concluded that the underlying health conditions, combined with Chauvin's restraint and any possible intoxicants in Floyd's system, likely contributed to his death.

Comment: Given the riots currently gripping the US have taken on a life of their own, with many of those involved likely not even knowing who George Floyd is, it's likely that the results of the autopsy will have very little impact. Regardless of whether Floyd actually died of asphyxiation or not, it is undeniable that his death was caused by being pinned by a police officer, his knee to Floyd's neck, for nearly 9 minutes is what killed him.

The coronavirus lockdown is seemingly down and out, as many Democrats in charge of big cities -- including several who once insisted on strict quarantine measures -- line up to champion the nationwide mass demonstrations over the in-custody death of George Floyd, sans social distancing.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo lashed out at protesters calling to reopen the state earlier this month, saying at a news conference, "you have no right to jeopardize my health ... and my children's health and your children's health." Cuomo's directives have been enforced throughout the state: A New York City tanning salon owner told Fox News he was fined $1,000 for reopening briefly last week, calling the situation "insane" and saying he already was "broke."

On Friday, though, Cuomo said he "stands" with those defying stay-at-home orders: "Nobody is sanctioning the arson, and the thuggery and the burglaries, but the protesters and the anger and the fear and the frustration? Yes. Yes, and the demand is for justice."

In April, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told the Jewish community that "the time for warnings has passed" after he said a funeral gathering had violated social distancing guidelines. On Sunday, the mayor asserted, "We have always honored non-violent protests."

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, meanwhile, had warned that in-person worship services would be a "public-health disaster," disregarding constituents' concerns that he was violating their First Amendment rights. Now, his administration has been distributing masks to rioters, even though public gatherings of 10 or more are still ostensibly banned. Frey also allowed a police station to burn, saying it was necessary to protect police and rioters.

Comment: A plausible reason for why things are leaking out now is that the virus just didn't do what they said it would do, so they're gradually 're-adjusting to reality'.

For us, the question remaining is the one we were asking at the beginning: why did they push unprecedented lockdown measures on a third of the global population when they knew even then that the virus was nothing unusual (in terms of its mortality rate anyway)?

It was patently obvious - observing its course in Hubei, China, in January - that it was NOT a 'mass killer', yet Western propaganda instruments went into overdrive exaggerating the outbreak there in preparation for locking down the West.

Why? For power's sake? If so, it was a stupid maneuver on a number of counts, not least because it has 'revealed the man behind the curtain' - not categorically; we don't know who exactly made the orders, but certainly no one can now reasonably argue that the concept of a centralized world govt is not in place.

A senior official in the direct chain of command for defending Washington D.C. told Fox News that more than 50 Secret Service officers have been injured Sunday night so far, and that some rioters are throwing bottles and Molotov cocktails.

As observed in New York City and elsewhere, groups in D.C. are planting cars filled with incendiary materials for future use, Fox News is told.

U.S. Marshals and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents have been deployed to the streets of D.C. in an extraordinary move to beef up security alongside local police and Homeland Security agents, including the Secret Service, the Justice Department confirmed late Sunday. Fox News has learned U.S. Attorney for D.C. Mike Sherwin is heavily involved in the operation.

What we have been witnessing on the streets of Minneapolis is just the beginning. Our nation is so deeply divided, and a large portion of the population is losing faith in the basic institutions that govern our society. Personally, I don't know how anyone can watch the video of what happened to George Floyd without having an emotional reaction. Police brutality has been a massive problem in the United States for many years, and it has gotten to the point where most of the country no longer has faith in the police. Of course the rioters are not helping their cause by burning down the communities that they are supposedly defending. And after causing so much chaos on Wednesday night, protesters were back in the streets of Minneapolis on Thursday...

Protests and, in some cases, violence, continued Thursday in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody after a white officer pinned him to the ground under his knee.

Hundreds of protesters flooded Minneapolis streets Thursday evening for a march through downtown. Traffic was halted as a crowd of people stretched for up to four blocks. Protesters shouted "I can't breathe" and "no justice, no peace; prosecute the police" as volunteer marshals in highlighter-colored vests directed traffic.

Sadly, this is just a small preview of what is coming to major cities all over America.

If you think that these riots about police brutality are intense, just wait until the economic riots start.

Comment: Though the events in Minneapolis look like they were, in part - paid for, agitated and provoked - the author's analysis pretty much still holds. Unemployment was already bad (and under-reported) prior to the virus, the economy was set to destruct prior to the virus. And keeping millions under the hysterical lockdown has already proven incredibly detrimental to the mental health of many. When the Big Crash does finally occur, and the checks have run out, and the dollar has one tenth of its current value - we may see wide-spread civil unrest the likes of which the US has never seen.

It probably hasn't passed anyone by that the covid19 crisis, whether manufactured or exploited, has caused great schisms in the alternative media.

Almost from day one there was a divide between those who opted to accept and even endorse the rollout of authoritarian measures by governments around the world as 'necessary evils' (or even as harbingers of a world socialist revolution; beats me how that is supposed to work but still), and those who pointed out that this rollout was at best flagrantly disproportionate and opportunistic, and at worst a planned response to a planned or cynically manipulated 'pandemic'.

Over the last few months the position of the latter has become stronger by the day, while that of the former has been weakened to the point of collapse.

As we have pointed out many times the official data has never supported the panic memes. In fact the two entities, data and narrative, co-exist almost independently of one another, telling mutually contradictory stories, without anyone in the Panic-sphere (to coin a phrase) seeming to notice or mind very much.

It's as if on this topic some very smart people have been hypnotised or vaccinated against fact. They see the numbers, they read the data, but it just does not compute.

Comment: An excellent reminder to not take everything a respected thought-leader says as correct - just because they know what they're talking about on some matters. Every issue must be given its due. And every individual has their own biases and deficits of worldly knowledge and self-knowledge that can benefit from self examination, and a commitment to get to the bottom of things.